Dalmatian language

Dalmatian or Dalmatic (dalmatico, dalmatski) was a group of Romance varieties that developed along the coast of Dalmatia. Over the centuries they were increasingly influenced, and then supplanted, by Croatian and Venetian.

It has not been demonstrated that Dalmatian belonged to a larger branch of Romance or even that its varieties constituted a valid genetic grouping of their own.

Ragusan
This was spoken in Dubrovnik (Ragusa). Various Ragusan words are known from local documents in Latin and Venetian. One such document, for instance, records the words pen, teta, chesa, fachir and indicates the meanings 'bread', 'father', 'house', 'to do'. There are also some 14th-century texts in Ragusan, but these show extensive Croatian and Venetian influence, to the point that it is difficult to discern which if any of their features are genuinely Dalmatian.

A notable feature of Ragusan was its preservation (without palatalisation) of Latin and  before front vowels, which can be seen in attested forms like colchitra < Latin.

In the Republic of Ragusa, official business was conducted in Ragusan until approximately the end of the 15th century. In 1472 the Senate famously banned the use (without permission) of "Slavic" or "any language other than Ragusan or Italian" for conducting legal disputes. Another piece of evidence is a letter by Elio Lampridio Cerva (1463–1520) that mentions "I remember how, when I was a boy, old men would carry on legal business in the Romance language that was called Ragusan".

Vegliote
This was spoken in Krk (Veglia, Vikla ). It is documented from the 19th century, in large part thanks to the efforts of the linguist Matteo Bartoli and his informant Tuone Udaina. When they first met, Udaina had not spoken Vegliote in two decades and could only produce a sort of 'Dalmatianised' Venetian. As their interviews went on, he was able to recall more and more Vegliote from his youth, albeit in a form still tinged by his Venetian.

Like Ragusan, Vegliote did not participate in the broader Romance palatalisation of and  before front vowels. (Compare Vegliote "cold" and Italian  < Latin .) Nevertheless it appears to have undergone a later, and independent, palatalisation of  to  before the sounds, as in the word  "arse" < * < * <.

It was once thought that Vegliote, like Romanian, showed the sound-change >, but the only example of this is  "eight" < , which was probably affected by analogy with  "seven" <.

Sample
From Udaina. Stress-marks have been omitted.


 * "When those eight old-timers were still alive I would speak Vegliote with everyone because I'd learnt it when I was little. I was three years old when I began to speak like that in Vegliote, because my grandmother taught me, and my mum and dad would speak like that in Vegliote. They would speak [in Vegliote] because they thought I didn't understand, but I understood all those words they were saying in Vegliote. My grandma would tell me 'Wait just a bit for daddy to come home and I'll tell him to spank you'".
 * "When those eight old-timers were still alive I would speak Vegliote with everyone because I'd learnt it when I was little. I was three years old when I began to speak like that in Vegliote, because my grandmother taught me, and my mum and dad would speak like that in Vegliote. They would speak [in Vegliote] because they thought I didn't understand, but I understood all those words they were saying in Vegliote. My grandma would tell me 'Wait just a bit for daddy to come home and I'll tell him to spank you'".

Others
Dalmatian would also have been spoken on major islands and in towns along the Adriatic coast, namely Cres, Rab, Zadar, Trogir, Split, Kotor.

Survival as a substrate
Likely 'Dalmatisms' in Croatian include:


 * The toponyms Cavtat < ; Cres < ; Krk < ; Makar(ska) < ; Split < ; Labin < ; Solin < ; Lovran < ; Supetar < ; Sutomore <
 * Words in the Dubrovnik dialect like kȁpula "onion" < ; kèlomna "pillar" < ; kȑklo "fringe" < ; lìksija "lye" < ; lùk(i)jerna "oil-lamp" < ; otijemna "barge-pole" < ; òvrata "snapper" < ; pìkat "liver" < ; prȉgati "to roast" < ; rèkesa "low tide" < ; trȁkta "drag-net" < ; úkljata "seabream" <
 * Words in Standard Croatian like jarbol "mast" < ; kònoba "tavern" < ; òliganj~lïganj~lìgnja "squid" <